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Written by Adrian McLean
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Monday, 07 April 2008 |
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Search Engine Optimisation is one of the most effective ways to improve the volume and quality of traffic to your Web site. Through the use of keywords, Search Engine Optimisation increases traffic by improving the way a site ranks in search results every time someone does a search for those particular keywords. In theory, the higher a site ranks among search results, meaning, the earlier the site is mentioned among these results, the more Web users will visit that site. Hence, a higher rank leads to higher traffic.
Search Engine Optimisation traces its roots back to the mid-1990s at a time when the first search engines began cataloging the Internet. In the beginning, webmasters simply submitted their URL or their pages to the search engines and a spider from the search engine would crawl the URL or page looking for links to other pages. Once these links were tracked, the search engine would then index the information and store it in the server of the search engine. Once there, an indexer program would extract words, links and other information from the page and give weights to specific words and links.
It wasn't long when site owners realized the power of having search engines rank and display their pages. They quickly concluded that, the higher their Web sites were ranked, the more valuable these sites became when it came to attracting visitors. By July 26, 1997, the phrase "Search Engine Optimisation" was first recorded. It appeared on a Usenet message on that day.
During the early days of Search Engine Optimisation, search engines depended on algorithms that webmasters provided, including, meta tags and index files in engines. But webmasters often provided unreliable data on keywords the keywords in meta tags were often inconsistent, incomplete or inaccurate ' which led to irrelevant sites constantly appearing in searches.
Since search engines depended on webmasters, they also often suffered from manipulation and abuse, especially since many webmasters stuffed their content with keywords to improve Search Engine Optimisation. In response, search engines created more intricate ranking algorithms that assessed other factors that webmaters could no longer manipulate. One of the factors measured was "prominence," as measured by a program called Backrub, which was developed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, graduate students from Standford University. Search engines also began measuring the quantity and "strength" of outbound links through the PageRank program using a complex formula.
In 1998, Page and Brin, creators of Backrub, founded Google and Search Engine Optimisation was never the same again. Google combined Backrub, Pagerank and off-page factors such as hyperlink analysis to overcome manipulation and create reliable search rankings.
Today, search engines assess a broad range of factors, which they refuse to divulge, in ranking algorithms. According to spokesmen, Google measures no less than 200 different signals. Meanwhile, the two other leading search engines, Yahoo and Microsoft's Live Search, have their own ranking algorithms which they likewise refuse to disclose.
Search Engine Optimisation is still a evolving science and new techniques are emerging every day. What remains constant, however, is the effectiveness of Search Engine Optimisation in helping Web sites flourish.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 19 January 2009 )
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Written by Adrian McLean
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Monday, 07 April 2008 |
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Search Engine Optimisation is one of the most effective tools that online marketers use today. Novices to the world of Internet marketing often come across phrases such as SEO and wondered what it's all about. In a nutshell, Search Engine Optimisation is a practice that helps your Web site increase its number of visitors and, ultimately, helps your business succeed.
Here's an overview of the basic concepts of Search Engine Optimisation to help you determine for yourself just how valuable it can be for you.
- Virtually everyone uses search engines
According to some estimates, more than 60 million searches have been conducted over the Internet since it first came into vogue. These days, virtually a billion people use the Internet every day and the great majority of them rely on search engines to find what they want. Search Engine Optimisation is a way to make your site visible on these search engines, especially on companies like Google, Yahoo! and MSN, which are the leading search engines in the world. Ranking high on these search engine results is an incredible advantage for your Web site. And, through Search Engine Optimisation, you can achieve just that. Just imagine, ranking high on search engines means getting more visitors, which in turn means getting more potential customers, which in turn means more sales. Therefore, for any business, big or small, Search Engine Optimisation can translate into more sales. Isn't it about time you jumped on that bandwagon.
- Play with the big boys
If you're going to engage in Search Engine Optimisation, you might as well play ball with the largest search engine around. In this arena, Google, Yahoo!, MSN, My Way, Ask.com and AOL are king. Using Search Engine Optimisation to get high rankings in any or all of these household names will do wonders for your Web site.
- Bank on the power of keywords
As its name suggests, keywords are the key to unlocking the treasures Search Engine Optimisation holds. Learn to use keywords and you have taken a giant step in SEO. Basically, keywords are those words and phrases that people type into search engines when they're looking for information. There are ways to make keywords work for your Web site. First, determine what keywords users are likely to search for when looking for content on your site. Second, position these keywords or key phrases in strategic points throughout your site, including at the start and the end of the document as well as within your copy. Depending on the number of words in your content, keywords or phrases should be repeated throughout the text, with a density of around 2-5%. For example, 12 repetitions in 400 words.
- Determine your niche
With millions of sites littering the Internet, most sites have to compete with countless other sites to capture attention. You will have to fight your way to gain the recognition of users. To avoid fighting endless battles, try to to find your niche market. Search Engine Optimisation can do wonders, especially if you know the market you are catering to.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 07 April 2008 )
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Written by Adrian McLean
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Monday, 07 April 2008 |
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Search Engine Optimisation is crucial to the success or failure of a Web site, especially if the site was conceived with profitability in mind. If you're just starting out in e-commerce, a basic knowledge of Search Engine Optimisation is absolutely critical for you and for boosting your rankings and your traffic. And that's true whether your site is a blog, an online store or purely for information.
The good thing about Search Engine Optimisation is that it's free and accessible to anyone. However, what isn't free is the ability to write well and in a manner that Web users will appreciate. And neither is the time and effort needed to implement an effective Search Engine Optimisation plan.
In short, you will have to write well, invest time and make a constant effort to make Search Engine Optimisation work for you. Here are some tips to help you get started on the right foot:
- Stay up-to-date on Search Engine Optimisation developments
The world of SEO is constantly evolving. It is important to know about the latest techniques as they come about. Given the great potential of SEO to make or break your site, knowing the latest techniques can make a world of difference. After all, you wouldn't want to go to battle without the latest weapons in your arsenal, would you?
Along with digging deep for the right keywords to use for your Web site, it is also important to keep yourself abreast of the latest SEO techniques that the experts come up with. Search Engine Optimisation, along with other marketing techniques, is continuously evolving. Arming yourself with the latest arsenal in this field will keep you head and shoulders above your competition.
- Make your Web site easy on the eyes
Web users are an impatient lot, and having too much clutter on your site can turn them away quickly. After all, it only takes seconds to get to another site. Hence, it pays to have a design that's easy to follow, a site index that's easy to understand and links that are easy to view. Your goal is to make your site easy to navigate for both people and search engines.
- Choose the right keywords
Selecting the right keywords to provide search engines is a major factor. There are many resources on the Internet that can help you in this regard, both free or for a small fee. Of course, you can pick out the keywords on your own, but it never hurts to have the kind of numbers that professional keyword services provide to back you up.
- Content is king
In Search Engine Optimisation, keywords count but they don't tell the whole story. More is not always better. First of all, if you stuff too many keywords in your content, there's a chance that search engines will ban you for spamming. Secondly, if your content is cluttered with keyword what kind of user experience will that give your visitors? You'll probably tick them off so badly that they won't ever visit your site again.
Like life, the key to Search Engine Optimisation is moderation. Put in just enough keywords to attract the attention of search engines without sacrificing the quality of your content.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 07 April 2008 )
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Written by Adrian McLean
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Monday, 07 April 2008 |
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Here are more strategies on using Search Engine Optimisation to improve the marketability and popularity of Web sites.
Search Engine Optimisation is a tried and tested method for helping Web sites garner high rankings in search engines. In a previous article we listed down several strategies to help webmasters use Search Engine Optimisation for their benefit. Here are more:
- Think twice about submitting your sites to search engines
Submitting your site to a search engine like Google will not immediately translate into increased traffic. Sometimes, it takes search engines a while to process sites for optimisation. It may take a few weeks or even a couple of months to get things going. And even then, it may take a while longer before your site lands among the top rungs of relevant searches, if at all.
But there's a way to speed up the process and get the kind of high rankings from Search Engine Optimisation that you want. That's by getting yourself listed on Web sites and Web pages that already rank well on search engines. Such sites are optimized weekly, sometimes daily, and once the search engines index these pages, they will index your site as well, even if you are listed on the top-ranking site for only a few days. But make sure that you tap sites that have similar content to yours so you reach your desired target audience.
Of course, the hard part is getting yourself listed on the top-ranking sites. After all, since you are virtually unranked in search engines, you don't have much to offer by way of a link exchange. Perhaps the best approach is to offer these sites some kind of incentive or to pay them outright. One incentive that often works is offering to write an article that is relevant to their business. Web sites are always looking for good content, so you have a shot. You may even release this article to free article directories to help promote the site. Among the most popular article directories for Search Engine Optimisation are http://www.goarticles.com, http://www.ezinearticles.com/, http://www.articlecity.com/ and http://www.certificate.net/wwio/.
- Making use of lower case
When users type in keywords in search engines such as Google, they either capitalise all keywords, capitalise only the first letters of these keyword or don't capitalise, and Web sites can submit their keywords to search engines the same way. Given these variations, the best approach would be to submit wholly lowercase keywords. Studies indicate that spelling keywords in lowercase is the most common way people use search engines, so you might as well take advantage of that fact. Don't worry about the traffic you may lose should people search using other spelling variations. If you submitted keywords using the different spelling variations, there's a chance search engines will detect this as spamming and delete your URL.
- Do not spam!
That brings us to our next Search Engine Optimisation strategy don't spam. Spamming is actually a by-product of SEO. As Search Engine Optimisation grew in popularity, so did spamming. In the beginning, people even used to get away with it and keyword stuffing produced the desired results. But search engines have grown wiser and now have set up their own spamming safeguards. These days, spamming just isn't worth it as a Search Engine Optimisation technique.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 19 January 2009 )
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Written by Adrian McLean
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Monday, 07 April 2008 |
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Search Engine Optimisation is a cost-effective way of marketing your site and improving online traffic. Unlike advertising, you don't have to spend to improve your rankings in Google searches through Search Engine Optimisation. Here are some basic strategies to make Search Engine Optimisation work for you:
- Select your keywords with care
Search Engine Optimisation is not just about great content. It is about selecting the right keywords as well. The two must go hand in hand and cannot co-exist without the other, if one's SEO campaign is to be effective. After buying a domain name for your business, the next important step before you submit your site to search engines is to select relevant and useful keywords.
Fortunately, there are many useful tools available online to help you choose the right set of keywords or keyword phrases for your site. You can try visiting http://www.goodkeywords.com/ to get some valuable ideas. If you're willing to spend, you may also tap sites such as Wordtracker.com and others which provide more features compared to the free online tools. For instance, Wordtracker lists down the number of searches for particular keywords and gives alternative keyword suggestions to guide webmasters.
- Determine your niche
With millions of sites littering the Internet, most sites have to compete with countless other sites to capture attention. You will have to fight your way to gain the recognition of users. To avoid fighting endless battles, try to to find your niche market. Search Engine Optimisation can do wonders, especially if you know the market you are catering to.
Competing with established Web sites that possess outstanding rankings is a sure way to get buried in the rubble. It is far better to try to cater to another market with fewer competitors. By the same token, choosing common and popular generic keywords will not deliver the results you want because you will be competing with thousands of other sites who use the same set of keywords. Try to be more specific. For example, if you're selling delicious food for older people, don't use 'food' or 'delicious food' as your keywords. You will fare better if you select 'gourmet food elderly' or 'gourmet food age 50-plus.'
- Practice correct keyword placement
The importance of this one cannot be stressed enough. You may have the right keywords, but if you do not use them properly, these keywords will hardly help you at all. There are certain rules for using keywords in Search Engine Optimisation. For instance, articles must contain the right kind and the right quantity of keywords, but they should also be useful and make sense. It takes a seasoned SEO writer to accomplish this, but it can be done with considerable practice and patience.
Following these simple strategies will help you accomplish your Internet marketing goals and improve your Web site's search engine rankings and marketability. Search Engine Optimisation is a reliable tool that can work wonders for you.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 19 January 2009 )
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